Wednesday, June 15, 2016

10 Questions: Vegan Rock Star with Lisa Rimmert

Lisa Rimmert
is like seriously the best! I met Lisa online a few years ago when she asked to
interview me for her fabulous blog and
I walked away wishing that all questions would be like Lisa Rimmert questions.
Since then, Lisa and I have crossed paths in person and she is as fun,
down-to-earth and hilarious as I’d expected she’d be and she is now Director of
Development at Vegan Outreach. I am so glad that Lisa and her wonderful voice
have found a home working for the animals full-time as Director of Development
at Vegan Outreach and I’m pretty stoked to be able to share her thoughts today.
More Lisa Rimmert’s, fewer cranky vegans! I can get behind that movement. I am
happy to feature Lisa today as our Vegan Rock Star.

1.
First of all, we’d love to hear your “vegan evolution” story. How did you start
out? Did you have any early influences or experiences as a young person that in
retrospect helped to pave your path?

I have “loved animals” since I can remember–dogs, cats, animals
I was familiar with. I never thought about food animals until my friend became
vegetarian in college. I made fun of him like a defensive jerk instead of
looking inward at my own cognitive dissonance. A few years later, influenced by
a vegan friend’s blog, I realized the hypocrisy of claiming to love animals
while paying people to hurt and kill them because I liked burgers. I became
vegan three years later after attending an animal welfare conference and being
exposed to many vegans–none of whom had red paint, or hemp skirts and
white-people dreads like I would have expected. Having it normalized like that
made a big difference for me.
2. Imagine that you are pre-vegan again: how could someone have talked to you
and what could they have said or shown you that could have been the most
effective way to have a positive influence on you moving toward veganism?

I think I would have become vegan much sooner if I had known
other vegans. I encourage vegans to go out into the world, connect with non-vegans,
and lead by example. Show them how easy, accessible, and normal it is. If you
have to eat Taco Bell
and vegan milkshakes and buffalo seitan wraps all the time, so be it. It’s a hard
job but someone has to do it. ;)

3.
What have you found to be the most effective way to communicate your message as
a vegan? For example, humor, passion, images, etc.?

A mix of humor and vulnerability. I like to tell people how I
thought before I went vegan, and why that changed. I wasn’t always vegan, but
people are often surprised to hear or realize that I was once in their shoes.

Regarding humor, it’s a very natural way for me to express
myself. By nature I find the humor in most things, so I enjoy using that in my
advocacy. I run a snarky/funny blog called Weird! Why Aren’t You Vegan?, and I bring up veganism and animal
rights in my comedy. It disarms people and opens them up to new thinking.

4. What do you think are the biggest strengths of the vegan movement?

We are so motivated! Our compassion drives us. Even though
we’re still small in numbers we’re loud and powerful and influential. Go us!

5.
What do you think are our biggest hindrances to getting the word out
effectively?

Letting anger and righteousness drive our tactics. Yes,
we’re angry, and yes, we’re right. But we should find appropriate outlets for
those feelings (punch a pillow, perhaps?), and then go out into the world and be
nice.

6.
All of us need a “why vegan” elevator pitch. We’d love to hear yours.

None of us like seeing or knowing that animals suffer, and
yet a lot of us fund that very suffering. We don’t have to kill animals
in order to live healthy, fulfilled, satisfying lives, so why would we? We can
vote with our wallets for a kinder world.

7.
Who are the people and what are the books, films, websites and organizations
that have had the greatest influence on your veganism and your continuing
evolution?

When I first became vegan, I was really disheartened by the reactions
I received: people trivializing my feelings, being preemptively argumentative
or defensive, and trying to poke holes in what I believe. The book Living Among Meat Eaters
by Carol Adams helped so much. Now that I’ve been vegan for a while, I consider
intersectional justice advocates my teachers and role models. They teach me
that being vegan is not the be-all, end-all of compassion. There is more to do,
and it’s important to keep learning and growing.

8.
Burn-out is so common among vegans: what do you do to unwind, recharge and
inspire yourself?

I’m lucky in that my job is a constant source of
inspiration. As Director of Development for Vegan Outreach,
I get to work every day with amazing people–from Outreach Coordinators who lug
boxes of leaflets around and hand them out by the thousands each day, to donors
who give their hard-earned money to make that work possible. When I get really
ragey, I take my dog to the park and enjoy watching her have the time of her
life.

9. What is the issue nearest and dearest to your heart that
you would like others to know more about?

There are so many, but as I type this I’m particularly fired
up about captivity and sexism. Mostly unrelated but I’m sure there are
connections (forced breeding, hi!). I recently went whale watching in the Puget
Sound. In Blackfish,
that’s where over 90 Orcas were shown being herded into a net in 1970, to be
sold to marine parks like SeaWorld. I had seen Blackfish previously but that trip inspired me to watch it again
and learn more. Based on the makeup of their brains, scientists hypothesize
that whales are incredibly sensitive, highly emotional, have speech and even
dialects, and have amazing memories. Messing with their family systems,
separating them, and confining them are crueler than we can even imagine. Let’s
quit that. Read more here–it’s
super interesting (and infuriating, so good luck).

Regarding sexism, I’ll just say that it pervades every part
of our society, it’s often unconscious and invisible, and we need to knock it off.
J

10. Please finish this sentence: “To me, being vegan is...”

Realizing that there is no
neutral, that everything we do has an impact–and striving to make it a positive
one.

3 comments:

Really enjoyed reading this interview and thanks for the links. Thank you to both of you for your time in doing this interview and sharing your experience in vegan advocacy and good interview questions.Fiona

Avoid surprises — interviews need preparation. Some questions come up time and time again — usually about you, your experience and the job itself. We've gathered together the most common questions so you can get your preparation off to a flying start.

You also find all interview questions at link at the end of this post.